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Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Painted Caves - Surveillance (Shelter Press)

Evan Caminiti 's album possibly reflects a dystopian future more accurately than those who do so by shattering our ears with Noisy sonic visions of doom. It is, after all, an easy listen, with it's lush production values and ultra-clean sound. But therein lies the rub. The future nightmare may not be Orwell's idea of boot stamping on a human face forever, but a rebooted digital penthouse prison with padded walls and 24/7 connectivity.

Tomorrow's hell may almost be here since we're all dependent on the machine that governs our minds. Caminiti's world as conjured up by modular synths is an unnervingly seductive one. Each beat is a softened blow and every added colour serves to hypnotise, as on Event Boundary, which is insistent in it's bid to capture our ears and minds. To call a track Stalkers may be very imaginative, but are they the kind who search for a mysterious alien artefact, or those simply obsessed with following? That's what I'm wondering.

Talking of Tarkovsky, Surveillance is, in cinematic terms, more akin to Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey than the former's damp, rusty future. It's all pristine, modernist interiors, albeit in tones of blue, black and grey. Part Artemiev, part Vangelis, Caminiti strives for the best of both approaches to tomorrow's world and largely succeeds.

As I suggested at the start, it's the seductive nature of all this that worries me. It is self-conscious futurism perfectly rendered in sound...and I like it...